During the first half of the 20th century, writes Joseph Epstein, boxing played a role in American popular culture that even overshadowed baseball. Also, before World War II, Jews were wildly overrepresented among the country’s leading pugilists. Mike Silver tells the story of these Jewish boxing champions in Stars in the Ring. In his review, Epstein comments on the book’s appeal:
No other ethnic or religious group is likely to have been the subject of a work like Stars in the Ring. This is because no one exults like American Jews in the athletic prowess of their co-religionists. Who asks if Peyton Manning is a Lutheran, Tiger Woods a Catholic, Buster Posey a Presbyterian? For a superior athlete to be Jewish, though, is a high point of pride among Jewish men. I have myself sat in on countless conversations in which the question of whether one or another contemporary athlete is Jewish is discussed. . . .
Is this because Jews, the “People of the Book,” prefer not to be taken as altogether too bookish? A successful Jewish jock, demonstrating strength and physical courage, nicely rounds out Jews’ sense of completeness as human beings.
Truly great Jewish athletes nonetheless have been less than abundant. . . . [And, of] Mike Silver’s list of the “Top 25 Jewish Boxers of All Time,” only four were middleweights or above. One could of course be a hard hitter even at 112 pounds, and some of the Jewish boxers listed had high knockout ratios over their careers, but the lighter-weight divisions required speed, savvy, and general prowess. Brains over brawn seems to have been the tendency in Jewish boxers.
Read more on Jewish Review of Books: https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/2271/jewish-pugs/